Apparatus is provided in which booklets of interleaved cigarette papers can be made from continuously moving strands of strip paper in which a cutting knife used to sever the paper strips precisely follows movement of the strip. Movement of a driven input shaft is brought onto the moving platform and used to operate the cutting knife. Paper from bobbins is converged by formers and a spreader into a strand advanced by nip rolls through a cutting station. The knife in the station cuts a booklet from the strand while the station moves with the strand. A driven rotary shaft of non-circular section transmits its rotation to a sleeve that slides therealong as the station reciprocates relative to a shaft. The sleeve is operably connected e.g. by gearing or by a cam and follower to the knife so that rotation thereof brings about the cutting movement.
It is known from Patent Specification No. GB-A No. 688144 (Korber) to make booklets of folded and zig-zag interleaved cigarette papers by withdrawing paper strip from a plurality of supply rolls or bobbins, folding and interleaving the strips by passage through a succession of combs to form a folded and interleaved strand, and cutting the strand to form booklets. But the machine employed by Korber had a stationary cutting knife which was impractical for high speed operation and did not make a clean transverse cut through the strand which is required to move continuously. U.K. Pat. No. 2165080 (Kastner) describes a similar machine in which the paper is cut by a movable or "flying" cutting station. The knife is mounted on a movable knife plate carried by a platform that is reciprocally movable in a direction parallel to the direction of travel of the strand of interleaved paper strips. A cylinder or other means carried by the platform reciprocally moves the knife plate towards or away from the strand so that the knife follows the movement of the strand as it severs the strip. A pusher plate carried by and movable with the knife plate displaces a severed booklet or packet sideways with respect to the line of travel of the strand. But the Kastner machine still presents a number of disadvantages. Reciprocation of the platform is by an eccentric on a drive wheel that is coupled to the platform by a pivoted link, so that the platform does not match the speed of the strand throughout its rearward stroke, but instead its velocity varies in simple harmonic motion. Since the knife is moved towards and away from the strand without any component of motion across it, cutting is not as efficient as it could be. Cut booklets are discharged sideways into a magazine which is joined to the reciprocating platform by means of a flexible portion, which is essential because movement of the pusher is not separated from that of the knife. A flying cutting station is also suggested in German Patent Specification No. 427701 (Maschinefabrik Munchen). Such a device is known in the context of severing tobacco rod from, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,989 (Drehr).
Our U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,862 of Mar. 10, 1987 describes and claims apparatus as aforesaid in which a rotatory movement of the cutting station drive is brought onto the moving "platform" of the cutting station and used to operate the cutting knife. Thus rotation of a driven member in the cutting station could be transmitted to the knife by means of a cam and follower, by means of gearing or by means of a chain or belt. The knife was driven positively from the same drive that reciprocated the cutting station, and a desirable guillotine-like or slicing cutting action was achieved. An ejector was also mounted on the cutting station as also was a clamping device, and bringing of rotatory movement to the cutting station enabled these additional functions to be independently coupled to the rotating shaft to perform differently timed operations along independent paths. Cut booklets were fed to a discharge chute having an inlet spring providing a ratchet-like function so that cut booklets once in the chute did not return.